On January 17, 1994, residents
of the greater Los Angeles area were rudely awakened by the Northridge
earthquake. A benefit concert was quickly organized to raise relief funds, and
Shlomo was invited. The concert, entitled Rekindling the Flame, took place on February 1, 1994 at the Tatou nightclub in the affluent city
of Beverly Hills near Los Angeles.[1]
The musicians
accompanying Shlomo included Robby Nathan Halperin, Bruce Berger, Skye
Michaels, Simcha (Ed) Sheldon, Sam Glaser, Chanan (Michael
Ian) Elias, P.F. Sloan, and two women, Joy Krauthammer (percussionist), and
Shirley Perluss (mandolin).

A few
weeks later, on March 11–12, 1994, Shlomo led a Shabbaton program in the B’nai David-Judea (BDJ) Synagogue in the Pico
Robertson area in Los Angeles.[2]
The program was so inspirational that afterwards Stuart Wax and Lewis Weinger
opened a bank account and registered the name “Carlebach West” with the intent
of establishing a Carlebach minyan in Los Angeles.[3]
The Happy Minyan of LA was founded a year later, in March 1995, the Shabbat
after the wedding of Stuie and Enny Wax. The LA Happy Minyan “now draws 100 to
150 people to services at The Karate Academy of Pico-Robertson.”

Two additional pictures are from Lewis (Aryeh Leib)
Weinger, Chief Financial Officer of the Tatou nightclub who was instrumental in
the organizing. Aryeh Leib made aliyah recently and lives in Tekoa. He is an
active board member of the Carlebach Legacy Foundation.

[2] See Joy
Krauthammer, “The Pied Piper – Dancing with Joy,” Kol Chevra, vol. 15,
2009, 106–109. On p. 108, is a picture of Joy with Reb Shlomo at 2:30 AM when
she completed duplicating tapes of this concert. See also Rebshlomocarlebach-ztl.blogspot.com.